Claire Peacock
Claire Jane Peacock (née Casey) was the second wife of Ashley Peacock who arrived in 2003 as Joshua Peacock's nanny and romance developed with Joshua's father Ashley, who had lost his wife Maxine earlier in the year. They married in 2004 and she fell pregnant a year later, giving birth to her son, Freddie. Biography Claire first arrived in Coronation Street as nanny to Joshua Peacock, after his mother Maxine was murdered by Richard Hillman. A romance developed between Claire and Joshua's father, Ashley, and the couple married on Christmas Day 2004. On 17th July 2006, Claire gave birth to their son, Thomas. However, she suffered from severe postnatal depression, avoided spending time with Thomas, and lacked any interest in him. After attempting to return her child to the hospital, claiming he must have been switched at birth, and pushing him in his pram into the middle of a busy road, Claire was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She was allowed to return home a month later, and chose to rename Thomas as Freddie, following the death of Ashley's father, Fred Elliott. Claire was a crucial supporting character in the Charlie Stubbs and Tracy Barlow storyline which began to develop in late 2006. Tracy began to befriend Claire when she and Charlie moved in next door to the Peacocks. However, her friendship with the naive Claire was just a ploy to get her on side as she plotted her revenge on cheating Charlie. Claire became very suspicious and worried when she heard arguments and slamming doors next door and became convinced that Tracy was a genuine victim of domestic abuse. She began to keep record of all the occurrences, much to the delight of Tracy who was pretending that Charlie was beating her. When Tracy killed Charlie in January 2007, loyal Claire stood by her and testified on her behalf in court at the murder trial. However, Claire's evidence was disputed as her history of mental illness was brought up by the prosecution. In 2007, Claire began working for Weatherfield's 'Women In Crisis' helpline, where she met and befriended a woman who had lost her child - Casey Carswell. The pair fell out when Casey took baby Freddie without informing Claire. In May of that year, when Claire was home alone with Freddie, the Peacock residence was engulfed by flames. While Claire was rescued from the burning building, Freddie was not, and was missing presumed dead until later found in a local park. The police revealed that an accelerant had been discovered at the focal point of the fire, indicating that it was started deliberately. Due to her previous mental illness, Claire was suspected of and arrested for the crime, although was later released without charge. Claire privately suspected Casey of starting the fire, and was later revealed to be being stalked by the character, who went on to begin an affair with Ashley. Claire and Ashley separated when his infidelity was revealed, but were reunited after it emerged that Casey had indeed been behind the fire, and was narrowly prevented from killing herself and Freddie after abducting the boy. In 2008, Claire and Ashley began experiencing financial difficulty. In a bid to reduce costs, Claire agreed to a house swap with friend and neighbour Sally Webster. Contention arose, however, when Claire believed Sally had manipulated their estate agent into overvaluing the Websters' home, while undervaluing the Peacocks' home. The two families were forced to live together temporarily, when a wiring fault with the Websters' former home meant the Peacocks had to move out again while it was repaired. Claire and Sally fell out when Claire discovered vintage programmes of The Beatles in the attic of the Websters' former home, and sold them for £7,000. Sally threw the Peacocks out, and the family went to live with Claire's mother. However, Kevin and Ashley remained on good terms and Ashley and Claire returned to live in the Websters' old home again. Sally and Claire were seen talking friendly in March 2009, with the feud seemingly being forgotten. In July 2009, Claire and Ashley went through marital difficulties and Claire collapses. She was found by Lloyd Mullaney and rushed to hospital where it was revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage, after discovering that she had been three months pregnant. Ashley was heartbroken as doctors discovered that she also had a potentially fatal blood clot on her lung. However, she soon recovered. During her recovery, Claire - scared of her postnatal depression reoccurring, decided not to have any more children and insisted that Ashley had a vasectomy. He eventually agreed and had the operation on his second trip to the clinic as last-minute nerves overwhelmed him the first time. After that, Claire became extremely active in the local community. She organised a Street fair which went well until Joshua was rushed to hospital following an allergic reaction to a wasp sting. Claire felt guilty as she'd ignored Josh's earlier complaints of pain, though he quickly recovered. Soon afterwards, Claire developed a close yet unlikely friendship with Becky McDonald, despite their initial dislike due to Becky's stepdaughter, Amy Barlow's use of bad language in front of Josh and Freddie. Together with Becky and John Stape, they organised a pantomime of Cinderella shortly before Christmas 2009, which featured Claire in the title role, Steve McDonald as Prince Charming and Becky as Dandini. This too is very successful, albeit apart from when Claire's concerns for Amy were illustrated when, on stage, she becomes star struck and, instead of singing, says a swear word. In Summer 2010, Sunita Alahan decided that she wanted to return to work and, despite husband Dev's objections, asked Claire to be their childminder. Everything went fine, apart from Dev's nit-picking about minor concerns regarding food from the Alahans' fridge, laundry and mileage on the car. The real problem occurred when Aadi Alahan fell unconscious, following a sleepover at the Peacocks'. He was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with a serious brain injury and needed an operation, prompting the hospital staff to call the child protection team. Dev was hostile to them and pointed the finger at Claire, telling about her history of mental illness but Claire told them that, due to a family emergency, she had left Sophie Webster and her secret girlfriend, Sian Powers, in charge of the children. She had promised Sophie and Sian that she would keep their relationship secret but when called a liar by Sally Webster, she revealed their secret to the entire congregation at Roy and Hayley Cropper's wedding. In September 2010, the truth behind Aadi's injury was revealed when young Simon Barlow confessed that he pushed Aadi whilst they were playing, thereby causing Aadi's injury. Claire was still furious that many of the Street's residents turned against her and despite Sunita's apologies over the events she decided that she wants a fresh start away from Weatherfield. She was overjoyed when her mother Yvonne suggested that she, Ashley and the boys could go to France with her and her new partner. However, the proposed move caused tension between her and Ashley as he wished to remain in Weatherfield and even went as far as to fake an angina attack to postpone the move. Claire was furious when Ashley admitted that he was in perfect health and was adamant that they would still leave. On 6th December 2010, an explosion wrecked The Joinery bar and seriously damaged the viaduct above, derailing a tram which hit the Corner Shop leading to the Peacocks' house being gutted by a fire. Claire and the boys escaped unhurt but Ashley, who was in The Joinery at the time of the explosion, was crushed to death after saving Peter Barlow's life. Claire was left devastated in the wake of the tragedy and vented her fury at bar owner Nick Tilsley, who initially was thought to have caused the explosion through negligence. She later told Nick that she knew that he would not have intended any harm, and he was then exonerated by the police. On 25th December 2010, Claire came face to face with Tracy Barlow, who had recently been freed from prison. Tracy mocked Ashley, and in the week that followed they had several further ugly encounters. During one of these confrontations, Claire pushed Tracy inadvertently causing her considerable injury. It wasn't until Tracy regained consciousness that the Police began to investigate Claire's involvement and it looked as though Claire would be formally charged with assault. On 14th January 2011, her 30th birthday, the residents of the Street, led by Becky McDonald, managed to smuggle Claire and her two sons Josh and Freddie out of Weatherfield to escape the police and to the new life they had planned in France. They succeeded and Claire was last seen being driven away in a truck by Jason Grimshaw, heading to Manchester Airport. A few weeks later Tracy witnessed Becky receiving a phone call from Claire, who was settling into her new life abroad. However, everyone had refused to divulge Claire's whereabouts and so Tracy was denied any chance of revenge. On 15th April, the Peacocks' former home 13 Coronation Street was purchased by Lloyd Mullaney and thereby severed any remaining ties Claire had in Weatherfield. Personality Background information *Claire was absent between July 2008 and February 2009 as actress Julia Haworth went on maternity leave. Despite being absent seven months, the character was never written out and remained off-screen the entire time. *The Peacock family members were axed by producer Phil Collinson in 2010. Despite rumours they were going to leave together, Ashley was killed off during the 50th Anniversary tram crash leaving Claire widowed and the children fatherless. Claire, Joshua and Freddie departed a month later. First and last lines "Thank you." (First line, to Ashley Peacock) --- "I'll miss you." (Final line, to Becky McDonald) See also *Full list of appearances Category:Coronation Street characters Category:Articles requiring cleanup Category:Peacock family Category:2004 marriages Category:1981 births Category:Residents of 13 Coronation Street Category:Residents of 4 Coronation Street Category:Taxi drivers Category:2011 departures Category:2003 debuts Category:Residents of 2a Coronation Street Category:Rovers residents Category:Bus drivers Category:Street Cars drivers Category:Street Cars switch operators Category:Residents of 11 Coronation Street